Jehovah-Rapha Ӣ Jehovah Who Heals

GOD’S MANY NAMES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

  1. A few we have studied appear hundreds of times.
  2. Others appear only once or twice.
  3. Yet all are to help us know Him better and trust Him more.

“I AM JEHOVAH YOUR HEALER” – Exodus 15:26

  1. “I AM” (YHWH or JEHOVAH) gave Israel deliverance from Egypt through the plagues
  2. “I AM” delivered Israel from Pharoah’s armies at the Red Sea
  3. Three days into the desert they reach Marah, but the water was undrinkable and the people grumbled against Moses (but really the LORD)
  4. The LORD guided Moses to throw a certain wood into the water and it was “healed” and made sweet.
  5. Then the LORD tested them by giving them a decree and a law…
  6. The LORD called Himself, “The Lord Your Healer.” Rapha in Hebrew means to “heal, mend, or make whole.” Healing would depend on their obedience.
  7. Their history through 40 years in the wilderness and the rest of the OT will be short times of faith and obedience followed by faithless disobedience.

JEHOVAH AS HEALER IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

  1. Rapha appears 66 other times in OT, most describing the LORD’s work
  2. In the Wilderness – Miriam (Numbers 12:13), brass serpent (Numbers 21:4-9)
  3. Elisha (2 Kings 2:21), Naaman (2 Kings 5:8-14), Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:5f)
  4. The LORD also “heals” of sins and transgressions
    a. Psalms 4:3-4; 103:3; 147:1-6
    b. Jeremiah 8:22; 17:14; 30:13,17; 33:6
    c. Hosea 6:1; 7:1; 14:4
  5. The promise of a Great Healer to come – Isaiah 53:4-5

IN THE NEW TESTAMENT THE GREAT PHYSICIAN IS JESUS!

  1. All the miracles of healing by Jesus were to lead people to faith in Him being the Savior, by whose stripes they could be truly healed!
    a. Luke 4:23; Matthew 9:12
    b. Mark 2:1-12; John 8:12; 9:1-5; 9:6-41
  2. The problem of many… they do not know they were sick! Matthew 13:15 shows they had heart trouble, were deaf as well as blind!
  3. For us who believe, He can heal both body (James 5:11-16) and soul.

A Prayer: Jehovah Rapha, we bow before You today to acknowledge that You are not only our Creator but the ONE Who Heals Us. Please heal us today, in both body and soul, and do the same for our loved ones. We also pray that You will heal whatever is bitter in our lives, and transform us in ways that will glorify You. Through the Great Physician we pray, Amen!
(Adapted from Praying the Names of God, by Ann Spangler. Zondervan Publishers)